Temporary

[Kennedy Pratt]

After a particularly grueling grading session, Kennedy was feeling rather overwhelmed with tarot readings and interpretations so she just wanted to take a break and get out of her office in the tower. The Divination professor made her way all the way down to to the ground floor where the staff lounge was. It was amusing to her how some people preferred the fresh, clean air that the towers provided to clear their minds, being closer to the skies and all, yet she was walking away from that. She needed noisy, stuffy, busy to distract her and make her feel like she was elsewhere, anywhere but here.

The two year anniversary of her parents' death was approaching soon and they had made no progress on the legal matters of the issue; one night she had felt so overwhelmed she had contacted Alaric even though she told herself not to. Although the Divination professor didn't necessarily consider herself a 'Seer', the call to read her cards and seek answers to her questions had been particularly strong lately - a call she was choosing to ignore for as long as she could help. It wasn't necessarily healthy to ignore the pull to do a card reading, especially when she would have to demonstrate in front of her students as an example and her answers ended up staring her in the face in front of a bunch of fourteen year olds, but Kennedy had not made the most rational decisions as of late.

The blonde entered the common room and felt a slight sigh of relief at the quiet hum of busyness in the room, some professors working silently or others talking amongst themselves. She walked over to the table where they had the supplies to make coffee and tea. Rather than use some of the paper cups available to them there, Kennedy conjured up her favorite oversized mug and began to pour hot water from the tip of her wand into the cup. She carefully browsed through the selection of teas available at the table before finally settling on one and dipping the tea bag into the steaming water. After pocketing her wand and finishing up her brew, Kennedy turned around and searched for a vacant arm chair to settle into. She saw an opening by the Potions professor and despite their awkward encounter at first in which she had made a fool of herself, Kennedy had come to appreciate the quaint professor's idiosyncrasy. "Mind if I join you?" she asked warmly, gesturing to the nearby arm chair. It wasn't necessarily intruding in his personal space but it was in close enough proximity that a close conversation seemed inevitable (and not to have one while sitting that close would be rude), therefore Kennedy felt the need to ask permission first, in case he wanted his privacy.​

 

[Monty Pendleton]

Though Monty was paging idly through the Daily Prophet, he was not reading: his anxious thoughts had been somewhat difficult to reign since his visit to Amauri, rendering him incapable of focusing on any text or prose that presently he deemed impertinent. And with the matter of Ava's partner being a convicted criminal, most of the articles over which he swanned his gaze seemed trivially unimportant. He had questions the Auror would not care to answer - information he would not care to listen to. The Ministry would almost certainly catch Zannon Matthias and prove him guilty of Riley Sparkles' murder. The question was, by the time they did, would it be too late? Ava might be next. Or Tobias, or Braxton. Monty couldn't stand it.

Absorbed in his thoughts, he startled slightly at the sound of Kennedy's voice, blushing for not having noticed her approach. "Yes, of course!" he said, adjusting his seat and folding up the half-heartedly read newspaper to offer the Divination Professor his full attention. Though their encounter during speed dating had been awkward and downright embarrassing, Kennedy's company was very pleasant, and their experience would surely provide them with an excellent anecdote in years to come. "How are you?"

 

[Kennedy Pratt]

Kennedy smiled warmly as Monty gave her permission to accompany him and took a seat, settling in nicely. "I'm doing fine," she answered truthfully, "How are you?" She grabbed the string of the tea bag and carefully dipped the bag repeatedly so the flavor would seap through well enough. "I usually prefer loose leaf tea, but I didn't want to be a walking cliche," she joked, as she continued to fiddle with the tea bag, waiting before her beverage was ready to drink. ​

[Eeeeek next one will be better I promise!]

 

[Monty Pendleton]

Monty nodded. "Oh, I'm fine, thank you," he replied, which wasn't a far stretch of the truth. He was concerned, yes, but with his mind so preoccupied with thoughts of Ava he had had little time to worry about anything else, which made for a pleasant change. He laughed at Kennedy's joke, leaning forward to pick up his own tea, which incidentally he had made in the cauldron-shaped mug Saveli had crafted for him two years ago. He raised his eyebrows as he took a sip, and then placed the mug back down, grinning. "Goodness; I can't believe how long ago Saveli made that for me. It must have been nearly two years, now." He thought for a moment. "How long have you been teaching here?"

 

[Kennedy Pratt]

Kennedy smiled and lifted her mug up in a silent salute as Monty picked his up. She chuckled lightly at its form, finding it endearing. After a quick sip of her tea, Kennedy tilted her head to the side and held her mug gently in her lap. "Who is Saveli, a girlfriend perhaps?" Kennedy asked delicately. Judging by his tone when he described the object it had come from someone who meant a lot to the Potions professor. When he asked how long she had been working here Kennedy replied, "Nearly two years now as well," nodding lightly, referring to the same time frame which he had just mentioned. "How about yourself?" She didn't know much about the professors that were here before her, just the ones that came afterward, so she didn't know much about Monty's experience at Hogwarts aside from the subject he taught. ​